Firmware version 1.54 is now available for the lucky owners of a Playstation 3. Two new features regarding webcam functionality have been added to the list and that’s it. On March 23rd, when the PS3 launches in Europe, firmware 2.0 is supposed to come out worldwide (perhaps sooner in Japan and the US) and Sony promised us some ‘big changes’.

Website PlayThree received a couple of rumors from ‘a friend close to Sony’ that in firmware 2.0 it would finally be possible to play downloaded Playstation 1 games on the PS3 itself instead of copying them to your PSP. The other rumor is that there’s going to be a relaunch of the Sony Connect service for music and music videos, and video on demand on Sony programmes.

The next major update to the Playstation 3 firmware will not be v1.55. The changes to the Playstation firmware are deemed to be so significant that it will in fact be v2.0, and will bring ‘big changes.’ It will be available to the European market at the time of the PS3 launch (23rd March). It may be available to the Japanese and North American PS3 owners a week or two earlier. Apparently Sony regard the PS3 launch to date as being a ’soft’ launch- ie, creating brand awareness, and fixing manufacturing and distribution issues. The launch of firmware 2.0 and assoicated updates of services is being described by Sony as ‘mind blowing’ and is the start of the ‘real launch’ - and a massive push by Sony.

We reported about firmware 1.60 earlier, and that contradicts above’s quote a little. According to that post, firmware 1.6 (which isn’t coming out according to Playthree) will contain some additional functionality like background downloading as well. Perhaps it’s just a mix up of version numbers or that ‘friend’ close to Sony isn’t such a good friend after all. Joystiq had some additional information about background as well, they received information that you can only download stuff when you’re in the XMB, and when you start a game, the download is paused. This is apparently done to reserve system resources needed for the game, but the Xbox 360 doesn’t have any problems with doing both at the same time.

Firmware 1.54 changelog:

• [Screen Mode] has been added as an option in the options menu for video chat. The image of the person you are chatting with during video chat can now be changed to match the screen size.
• You can now use a compatible USB camera compliant with USB video class (UVC) for video chat.*

* For information on supported models and usage instructions, contact the retailer where the cameras are sold.

It remains to be seen whether people will really get excited about playing their downloaded Playstation 1 titles on their PSPs since most people who really like a specific Playstation 1 title already own the disc version.

Thanks to Lotus 111s for submitting this news.